It's all how you look at it

At work yesterday, one of my fellow employees noticed the Grateful Dead T-shirt I was wearing (not the first one nor for the first time but, you know, I’ve only been working first shift for a little over a year now) and said, “Oh, that’s a Grateful Dead shirt. Do you like the Grateful Dead?” I said I did, yes. She went on, “Oh, my kids like that Grateful Dead stuff. They like all that rock stuff, you know, rock music. Me, I’m too old for that. I like the 60’s stuff—you know, 1960’s—that’s when I … you know, that’s what I listen to … Why, I’m going to turn 60 next year—can you imagine that?” I smiled my acknowledgement and she wandered off. Since I don’t always remember to think about what I’m saying to assess the social context first, I was very proud of myself for not responding with, “Isn’t that interesting? I too will be turning 60 next year.”